TORONTO – Not matter what happens next, professors of political behaviour in Canada will now have dramatic material enough to light up the dullest of classes. There is no exaggeration needed to spice up the events: the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, the morning of the day she was to deliver a budget update, resigned.
Boom. Just like that. Well… it is not entirely true. She issued an explanatory letter on social media (and reprinted elsewhere on this page) distancing herself from the Prime Minister, outlining serious policy difference, approaches to problem solving (“gimmicks”) and impugning lack of gravitas in a moment when the country needs a “true Team Canada response” to meet the nationalistic threats from our neighbour to the south.
“You and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada”, she says to the Prime Minister, moreover, she acknowledges she no longer has his confidence. Resignation (from Cabinet) is her only option.
Even if this might negatively impact the markets or the Government’s [short-term] stability… In the past, some governments have tied a vote on their economic update to a vote of confidence on their survival. Think Paul Martin’s. What will today’s NDP do now? The House is set to recess today for six weeks.
Pity Prime Minister Trudeau, the announcement came in the middle of a tediously long announcement by his friend and ally in Cabinet, Minister Sean Fraser, that he would not seek re-election for another mandate. Minister Fraser had been touted as a potential Finance Minister as recently as this past weekend. All a smoke screen to cover the real deal, according to our colleague Francesco Veronesi, on page 2 in today’s edition.
In any event losing two Ministers in one day does not usually augur well, especially when they are joining a cohort of others who have bid adieu. One wonders if all those MPs in the backbenches are shaking their heads in disbelief or trembling with anticipation that they may be elevated, even for a short time.
